The Dark Room
As Mark was ready to return to his apartment, he noticed it looked dark outside. He checked his phone to check the time and saw that it was around a little over one hour after he had first entered the <Dungeon>.
'But I am confident that it showed that eight hours passed, not one, 'Mark thought to himself, but someone revealed what had happened soon enough.
"Time passes differently between the natural world and the <Dungeon>. Since in this form I am connected to what you people call the Internet, I can easily tell the real-time here."
Mark found it helpful, as he didn't want to be gone for an extended period without reason, especially if he had to make a delivery or something. But hearing Truck-kun answering a question of his, more came into his mind.
"Will this place stay connected to the same <Dungeon> from now on? "
Mark still can't reach his level over the level of all the monsters, so he could still use it to level up. Also, since the <Blobs> and <Slimes> tented not to be fast, they were perfect for him to train his <Martial Art> Skill, too. After all, offensive Skills are more manageable to level up during combat than outside of it, or at least that was what Mark presumed.
"It should be for some time. Your <Training Crystal>, even if it isn't of Top Quality, should have its connection to that place and should stay active for a couple of weeks. Two months at tops, I would say. "
A smile formed on Mark's face as he started heading back to his apartment to rest. Even if his SP wasn't that low, all that fighting had caused some strain on his mind. He had to be always on guard; after all, a monster could have attacked him at any point.
In reality, the place wasn't as packed with monsters as he had first assumed, as sometimes he had to spend about half an hour to find one. He doubted that all of them were hiding from it, but there was a significant chance that he probably missed a few that did so. All the <Slimes> and some of the <Blobs> could camouflage with their environment, but they didn't when fighting him.
Luckily wasn't that far from the apartment, just it took him a long to find this place as he kept looking all over the place. No signs of the new Landlady's fancy car made sense to Mark since it was still quite early in the morning.
As he got into his apartment, everything was as he had left them, and even the lamb he had charged using his Skill was still on. Its light was bright as before, meaning it still had quite a bit of energy left in its battery.
Mark then headed toward his bed to get some rest.
"Do you have an alarm function? "Mark asked his phone/truck companion.
"Yeah, no worries about that. I will wake you up when needed. "
Mark didn't expect that answer but some insult or joke instead. But, unfortunately, because of the voice's nature, Mark still couldn't get a good read to tell if it was sarcastic. But for now, he just let it go as his eyes were getting heavier now that he lay on his bed like the tiredness had emerged when he decided to start resting.
This time he didn't start hearing the sounds of the engine trying to send him a secret message since Truck-kun was released. But he was still in the empty dark room instead of having a dream. He could feel that he couldn't focus as well as when he was awake, but it didn't feel as when he was dreaming. Instead, it was like something in between.
'Can I maybe train in here? '
Markus focused on opening his [Status], and even if it took him a few more seconds than usual, he succeeded. He definitely didn't feel like having his actual body in here, but it didn't feel like lacking a body either, once more a feeling of something in between.
Since he couldn't see anything but darkness here, training his <Appraisal> wasn't an option. However, since between <Mino Energy Manipulation> and <Martial Art>, the latter was of a lower level than the former, he decided to focus on it.
Even if he didn't have a person to fight with, he could still slowly practice his current techniques and try to correct them. When the Skill entered the <Basic State>, new knowledge related to it was 'unlocked 'into his mind with all the techniques the Trucko had, so he knew how they were supposed to look.
Currently, he focused on two techniques, which he also kept using in the <Dungeon>. One was a punching move, while the other was a kicking move. Both didn't look too complicated or different from a standard puck and kick, but both involved a fundamental principle of the Trucko— using Marku's Trucki.
Trucki seemed similar to the Ki that Mark had heard other Martial Art practitioners supposed to use in games or some in real life too. As for the ones in real life, Mark didn't know if it was something that people could use, or a theory to help them focus on their way to get stronger.
The Trucki worked to strengthen the power of his attack by focusing it on his punch or kick. Mark wasn't sure what Trucki was, as that was involved in the knowledge unlocked with the Skill, but he only knew how to control it. Controlling it didn't use SP as when he used <Minor Energy Manipulation>, but the attack itself did.
He focused on surrounding his fists with Trucki as slowly as possible and paid attention to its every move. He didn't have the chance to do so before, as he had to focus on fighting and being on guard. Even if his focus in this place wasn't as sharp as before, he was slowly getting used to it.
He started feeling the Trucki surrounding his fist and could even see it as a semi-transparent heavy mist started wrapping the fist he focused on. It hadn't been like that before, although he had noticed something yellow appearing at the moment of impacting with his foes, sometimes when he used those attacks.
He used the Trucki to strengthen the attacks by creating a shell to surround them, to make them as tough as metal or even tougher. Of course, doing so wouldn't affect the speed of his moves, as the shell had no weight. But focusing on creating a shell as fast as possible and keeping its shape wasn't easy, especially in the middle of combat.
Focusing the Trucki to surround his fist was the simple part, but he had to make it take the shape of his fist to be like a glove; otherwise, it would mess with the speed or force of his attacks. Although even his <Minor Energy Manipulation> didn't work on Trucki, the logic behind controlling it wasn't too far apart from each other.
Mark had his hand opened instead of making a closed fist, as it would be easier to make a shape to surround it. It started as a cuboid, which covered his entire hand, and started getting smaller in places to get into the place he wanted to.
____________________
<Martial Art> reached level 12
____________________
As the notification appeared, Mark could feel his control over Trucki slightly better than before, but still far from perfect. He took a couple more minutes to perfect the shape into his open palm, and even if it took the rough shape of his hand, it wasn't as thin as he wanted it. Instead, it looked like he wore a very thick glove.
He continued releasing and reforming it to improve his current time instead of the shape. He needed to work on both in the end, and if he hit a bottleneck to one, he could push to the other until he couldn't progress at both. When he reached that point, he would do the same by focusing on doing the same with his feet for his kicks. By doing so, he should level up his Skill a couple of times, increasing the chance of passing the bottlenecks he had before.
And things did work as he expected, and when he finished training on his feet, his Skill had reached level 15. The shape of his Trucki was much better than his hands, but he hadn't tried his hands with his current Skill's power. The shape of its legs was much less thick, but it was still a couple of centimeters more than he needed it to be. It had to be as a second skin, but since he would wear shoes, their shape would be the shape of those and not his feet.
As Mark started working on his hand, he once more did with an open palm, and at a much quicker rate than before, he made the 'Trucki glove.' It was much better than before, and since his control over Trucki was much better, he worked on making it while his hand made a fist.
The shape was much better than before, and it took him just a couple of seconds to form it, but it needed some focus that he could not afford in the middle of the battle. Still, he couldn't focus as well here as when he was 'awake,' but the difference wasn't that much.
But if he perfected his moves here or was at least close to it, they would be much more potent outside this place. And he had a way of helping in it, using something he kept until now.
His <Stas Points>.